CSO’s Capacity Building Workshop

Presently, African migrants living in communities do not participate in local governance processes due to a lack of acceptance by their local communities’ political leadership such as ward councilors, and therefore their participation is non-existent.  The lack of participation in local governance processes has subjected them to all kinds of vulnerabilities ranging from xenophobic attacks to soft targets of crime to cruel killings with very limited police protection.

It is behind this backdrop that DDP through SIDP, constantly engages with different stakeholders and non-state actors to discuss the status quo and bring solutions. A successful capacity building was hosted where 20 individuals drawn from different structures of the community such as Members of the Neighbourhood Watch, CPF Members, Peace Building Committee Members, Representatives from Civil Society Organisations and actively participated.

The workshop was hosted to achieve these objectives:

• To enhance representatives from African Migrants and local hosts on the understanding of the project
• To increase the capacity of the African migrant community, and community leaders from host communities to execute their respective roles and responsibilities related to the project.

Insights from the Workshop

• Pros and Cons of promoting and encouraging the inclusion of African Migrants in local governance structures.
• The possibilities for the successful implementation of the project were explored.
• Positive perceptions about African Migrants were created.
• A better understanding of the plight of the migrants where service delivery is concerned.
• The project was perceived as the best platform for human rights and migration educational activities.
• A few challenges and barriers were brought to light and the workshop discussed them such as language barrier; identification requisition to assume a political position in local structures; syndicates that are always curious about what the business of migrants with local structures; Stigma and discrimination against African Migrants based of perceptions.